Community Spotlight Mithra62

The Professional Scoop

I LOVE the development API. One of the cleanest and intuitive out there for a PHP CMS.

The fact that Concrete5 is a true, in EVERY sense of the word, OSS (open source) and takes advantage of other OSS projects to build itself, is pure zen. Nothing wasted and past experience actually helps more than most.

For example, knowing Bootstrap CSS, Symfony, and Laravel from other projects made developing for Concrete5 an honest treat. Rarely have I encountered a scenario developing solutions with Concrete5 where the pain was “too much” and that is rare for any OSS CMS.

What are you guys currently working on at mithra62?

Aside from Backup Pro, which is a big job unto itself, mithra62 is also responsible for quite a few endeavors.

First, and in no particular order, there’s VITY. VITY is a marketplace where Advertisers and Social Influencers can connect and manage entire social marketing campaigns. And 99% of it is automated using the custom VITY Platform which was, and is, developed by mithra62.

Another project of note is Jaeger; an MIT licensed PHP framework for building cross platform modules, plugins, and packages. So, for example, a plugin developer can write a backup plugin that works in both Concrete5 and CMS XX (and other CMSs).

Last is another open source project called Backup Pro Manager. While still in the alpha stages, Backup Pro Manager aims to centralize control over multiple Backup Pro installations to make management easier. For example, from 1 location, you can update Backup Pro settings for 100 installations.

Webmasters put blood, sweat and tears into their projects. Is there a project you are especially proud of?

Your client has a product they need to promote. So they sign up with VITY, create a Campaign, and can hire multiple Social Influencers (famous folks with dozens to tens of millions of followers) to pimp their products. Everything is automated and/or done programmatically; the negotiating/hiring/firing of an influencer, bank deposit/transfers, social analytics/performance, dispute resolution (for ensuing everybody’s honest).

Conversely, you’re on Twitter and you do YouTube videos. Now, if you wanted to, an Advertiser, like mithra62, could negotiate to hire you to promote their product(s), ensuring you got paid automagically, handling disputes programmatically (in the horrifying event issues arose), and money being deposited into your bank like clock work.

EVERYTHING is handled by the VITY Platform. And, yeah, mithra62 built that.

Eric, let’s start from the beginning. How did you come to Concrete5, and why did you get involved in the Concrete5 community?

I’d long had a bit of a nerd crush on Concrete5’s architecture for a few years actually but I couldn’t find a project that made sense due to the costs and expected feature set. So when I started down this strategy of Backup Pro I knew I’d finally have my chance to work with it.

The Personal Scoop

I always enjoy learning how people end up in their careers. Did you envision working in the web development industry from the start?

Oh, that would be a big and emphatic nu-uh... Web development wasn’t even close to my radar when I started out professionally. Nope; I thought I was to be a writer when I entered the workforce.

I’d actually spent 6 years going to college before I settled upon journalism as my focus (and “settle” really is the operative word). But even journalism was more a copout to generalize in writing. But that only lasted until I took my first job as a junior editor at a fitness magazine to help with their web presence.

14 years later and I write and sell backup software for a living. Life’s fun like that :)

Do you have any hidden talents that very few people know about?

I’m actually a pretty skilled musician. In fact, being a professional musician was my first real life goal I pursued seriously. But life does what it does and, due to a nasty case of tendonitis in my left wrist, that just couldn’t happen at the professional level.

I even went to college to study music for a couple years. And, it was in college where I learned about the tendonitis; I was getting shooting pains in my wrist randomly, it’d swell up, and be sore for days. Which meant I couldn’t play. Terrible feeling, even after all these years. Frustrating.

But, while I’m not able to play at 100% all the time, turns out I can still play sporadically so long as conditions are just right. So even though my career has taken me in a different direction, I’ve been able to continue growing as a musician just as a personal interest.

Dear Eric,

The concrete5 community would like to recognize your incredible dedication and support! We appreciate everything you do to make concrete5 successful. Contributors like you are worth their weight in gold.